How to Manage iPhone App Development Companies

As you can see from our recently released eBook, there are a bevy of attributes you need to consider when selecting an iPhone app development company. Once you have selected your iPhone developer, though, what comes next? You may know the questions to ask and the things to look out for when selecting a company, but do you know how to manage that relationship from your side? There are many interaction models you can follows, a few of which we’ll run through today:

The “Don’t Tell Me About the Labor, Show Me the Baby” Type
In general, this quote has to do with not making excuses. Many executives are this way in the sense that they want results and don’t care what obstacles you’re dealing with — simply overcome them and deliver. That’s not how I mean it in this context. What I mean is that for some companies, their lack of knowledge about app development, or overwhelming time commitments, or some other mitigating factor means that the project leader doesn’t want to know about the nitty-gritty details of how the app is progressing. This leadership style might make use of some intermittent deadlines, but for the most part, they simply want to sit back and take delivery of their app in X months.

If you have absolute confidence in your iPhone app development company, this can potentially work. If you’re completely above your head or don’t trust your tastes when it comes to user interface or user experience design, this might be the engagement model for you. However, it makes it difficult to track progress if you’re not intimately involved. Furthermore, if there is anything at all wrong with the app, even if it’s minor, it will take a lot of time to go back and fix it if you didn’t identify it early in the process. Plus, you run the risk of not putting your company’s stamp on that app if you’re too “hands off.”

The “Beauty is in the Details” Type
On the opposite end of the spectrum are companies that have a granular understanding of precisely what they want. They know every color, every button shape, every user experience touch point, you name it…. Now, some details oriented clients won’t know every single one of those, but they certainly have a finite and specific idea about what they want. Generally, these clients simply don’t have the resources or expertise to program it themselves, or they would (see why most companies end up [correctly] using a 3rd party developer here). This is generally a preferable model to the first working relationship, but it can also slow down time to market. If you’re that intimately involved with every minuscule decision, it makes it difficult to make major progress at times. Furthermore, one of the reasons you hire an iPhone app development company is to provide you with advice, expertise, and experience to help you arrive at the best final app. If you only give orders then you could be missing out on one of the largest competitive advantages a mobile app partner can provide.

The “Big Picture” Type
This company falls in the middle of the other two. They’re involved on a weekly basis (or at some other regular time interval) to make sure everything is progressing well in the big picture. They have a good idea of what they want, but they are not going through every frame of the storyboard to move each button by a millimeter. They want to know what’s going on regularly and want to have an active hand in building the app, but they don’t need to be consulted for every little thing. They listen to their development partner and incorporate their partner’s knowledge and expertise into the final plans for the app. This oversight style strikes a happy medium between the other two — involved enough to make sure you’re getting exactly what you want but not so deep into details that you lose sight of the larger overall picture.

In conclusion, there’s nothing to say that any one of these styles isn’t the best version for you and your leadership style; there is nothing inherently better or worse about each of the styles. Rather, this provides some perspective on how you can approach an app development project and what the relative pros and cons are for each leadership style.